Economic decision-making in free-to-play games: A laboratory experiment to study the effects of currency conversion

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dc.contributorAalto-yliopistofi
dc.contributorAalto Universityen
dc.contributor.authorSalminen, Mikkoen_US
dc.contributor.authorJärvelä, Simoen_US
dc.contributor.authorRavaja, Niklasen_US
dc.contributor.departmentDepartment of Information and Service Managementen
dc.date.accessioned2019-03-11T15:22:46Z
dc.date.available2019-03-11T15:22:46Z
dc.date.issued2018en_US
dc.description.abstractWe present initial results from a controlled laboratory experiment where the economic decision-making typical in free-to-play games was studied. The participants were presented with a series of scenarios, where they rated how much they were willing to pay (in euros, in hard currency, or in soft currency) for common in-app virtual goods (booster, unlock, timer). The goal of the study was to examine how the multiple currency conversions and the amount of resources affect the perceived value of the virtual goods and the willingness to pay for them. The results don’t support the notion that the currency conversions would lead to increased spending. When comparing the willingness to pay in different currencies by first converting them to a unitary currency, the participants were willing to use highest amount of resources when considering purchases in euros and least when considering purchases in soft currency. However, when considering purchases with euros, the participants were willing to pay most when they had moderate amount of virtual currency. But with gold the willingness to pay was highest when the amount of resources was the highest. This finding highlights the differences in how the players may process real money and in-game currencies. In addition, the results imply that regardless of the currency type, the participants were willing to pay most for unlocking of new game content. It is suggested that the economic decision making in free-to-play games could be studied also with abstract and simplified laboratory experiments.en
dc.description.versionPeer revieweden
dc.format.extent8
dc.format.extent92-99
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen_US
dc.identifier.citationSalminen, M, Järvelä, S & Ravaja, N 2018, Economic decision-making in free-to-play games : A laboratory experiment to study the effects of currency conversion . in Proceedings of the 2nd International GamiFIN Conference Pori, Finland, May 21-23, 2018 . vol. 2186, CEUR WORKSHOP PROCEEDINGS, CEUR, pp. 92-99, International GamiFIN Conference, Pori, Finland, 21/05/2018 . < http://gamifinconference.com/proceedings/#gamifin2018 >en
dc.identifier.issn1613-0073
dc.identifier.otherPURE UUID: 73ffbed5-f39a-4a47-b781-e6b7a72d45b3en_US
dc.identifier.otherPURE ITEMURL: https://research.aalto.fi/en/publications/73ffbed5-f39a-4a47-b781-e6b7a72d45b3en_US
dc.identifier.otherPURE LINK: http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85053065351&partnerID=8YFLogxKen_US
dc.identifier.otherPURE LINK: http://gamifinconference.com/proceedings/#gamifin2018en_US
dc.identifier.otherPURE LINK: http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2186/paper11.pdfen_US
dc.identifier.otherPURE FILEURL: https://research.aalto.fi/files/32339956/paper11.pdfen_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://aaltodoc.aalto.fi/handle/123456789/37071
dc.identifier.urnURN:NBN:fi:aalto-201903112213
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherRWTH Aachen University
dc.relation.ispartofInternational GamiFin Conferenceen
dc.relation.ispartofseriesProceedings of the 2nd International GamiFIN Conference Pori, Finland, May 21-23, 2018en
dc.relation.ispartofseriesVolume 2186en
dc.relation.ispartofseriesCEUR WORKSHOP PROCEEDINGSen
dc.rightsopenAccessen
dc.subject.keywordFree-to-play gamesen_US
dc.subject.keywordMonetizationen_US
dc.subject.keywordEconomic decision makingen_US
dc.subject.keywordGamificationen_US
dc.subject.keywordGamesen_US
dc.titleEconomic decision-making in free-to-play games: A laboratory experiment to study the effects of currency conversionen
dc.typeA4 Artikkeli konferenssijulkaisussafi
dc.type.versionpublishedVersion
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